Diwali in the hills

Exactly on 18th night just when my school closed for  Diwali, I set out with my mother for spending a week in the hills. We would be going to 4 places , Mukteshwar ( near Nainital), Odakhan and Talla Ramgarh and Matt Village ( near Almora).

Mukteshwar is at quite at a height and you can see the snow peaks if the sky is clear. Honey Singh Bawa uncle is making wooden cottages beside a stream which is frequented by leopards. Bawa uncle ( everyone calls him Babaji) invited me to stay here for a week and gave me 100% guarantee that I would see a leopard. Next time, I told him.

Here is the famous Mukteshwar sunrise

Bawa uncle's pinewood cottages

Breakfast in the company of the mountains

Now to Odakhan and Talla Ramgarh. B2R is a rural BPO which operates from these two places. I learnt that many employees walk from neighboring villages, up the hill, down the valley and through jungles where they sometimes run into bears and leopards. Some day I also want to work here instead of staying in dusty polluted cities.
This the Talla Ramgarh centre. Can you spot me amongst the employees?

The Odakhan BPO office is located amidst dense jungles. At the guest house where we put up, we were forbidden to step out after dark and before dawn as a leopard had taken a dog from where my hand is pointing not very long ago. Look below.

We had to leave Odakhan without meeting or even hearing of the leopard. Now to Matt village ( near Almora) to the house of Asha Auntie and Louk Uncle ( red house at the back of the picture). You have to walk quite a bit from the road to reach the house, but it was fun
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There too I had a lovely time. See me combining Logo blocks and lunch.

Now it was time to catch the train back to Dehradun. But not before a short stopover at Nainital to do my favorite things- boating .